Deschool Yourself: 10 Celebrity Parents Who Choose Homeschooling Instead of Public School

Written by Alexandra Martinez, find out a few celebrities wh0 choose homeschooling over public school (with photos!). The original article can be found here.

Celebrity parents face a unique set of challenges with their children's education -- with erratic work schedules, frequent travel, and paparazzi on every corner, it's no wonder many actors, writers, and entrepreneurs choose to keep their children out of a traditional school.

But the practical concerns aren't the only reason that famous families turn to homeschooling and private tutors: Many of them also prefer the individual attention, customized curricula, and wide range of experiences that make homeschooling so appealing to the rest of the 2.4 million homeschoolers in America today. You may not be able to fly in tutors from all over the world to educate your kids, but you can follow the lead of these well-known homeschoolers even without their A-list status.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett
Actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett have a world of educational options available to them, but when their children reached school age they decided homeschooling was their best choice. Jada told ESSENCE magazine, "The school system in this country -- public and private -- is designed for the industrial age. We're in a technological age. We don't want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn." The flexible schedule has also helped son Jaden and daughter Willow explore outside interests (he starred in The Karate Kid remake and she released her first single last year).

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

It wasn't just busy schedules and constant attention that made Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie choose homeschooling for their six children: it was a genuine dissatisfaction with the education system. "I do think we live in a different age and the education system hasn't caught up with our children and our way of life", said Angelina in an interview with the The Independent.

And when you're as rich as the Jolie-Pitts you can tailor your children's private education: The couple emphasizes respect for culture and diversity, and takes special care to help their adoptive children maintain their native roots, which includes a Vietnamese speaking tutor for Pax and a mentor with an "African background" to connect with Zahara.

Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman chose to homeschool their two adopted children, Connor and Isabella, who are taught by one of Tom's sisters. And while he stuck to the same model when it came time to start his youngest daughter, Suri, in school, Cruise and Katie Holmes went outside the family to choose a private tutor who can customize lessons to Suri's personality.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Holmes said, "We like the one-on-one education. I'm really happy that my daughter is strong-willed and determined. You really have to go with what the child is wanting."

Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales has said he is "disappointed by the 'factory nature' of American Education." As a result of his opposition to traditional schooling, his daughter Kira is taught at home by her mother, Christine. In an interview with Reasons Magazine, Wales said he believes "There's something significantly broken about the whole concept of school."

Mayim Bialik
Mayim Bialik, best-known as Blossom from her role in the early '90s sitcom, is living a back-to-basics life: She's a spokesperson for The Holistic Moms Network, an advocate for extended breastfeeding, and is raising her son without television or fast food. She's also a homeschooling mom, explaining to The Washington Post this is "the way people have always raised children, except for the last 200 years."

Lisa Welchel
The Facts of Life, which first aired in 1979, made Lisa Welchel a fan favorite during her 11 years in her role as Blair, the spoiled rich girl. In 1988 when the show ended, she married -- and ten months later was pregnant with her first child.

By the time her son reached kindergarten age she had already prepped him with phonics books and realized that her two younger children were eager to learn by his side. "We were having so much fun, you couldn't have paid me to send my kids to school", she says on her website.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston
John Travolta and Kelly Preston decided to homeschool their first child, Jett, who benefited from being with his parents and learning in a supportive environment. After Jett died suddenly in 2009, Travolta and Preston continued to homeschool their daughter, Ella Bleu, and welcomed a new future homeschool member, baby Benjamin, in 2010.

Darrell Waltrip
Darrell Waltrip, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner and Hall of Fame Driver, comes in second only to Jeff Gordon in numbers of wins in modern NASCAR racing. He also grew up being homeschooled, and is continuing the family tradition by making sure his children receive personalized instruction, too.

Robert Frost
Poet Robert Frost, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, was a staunch believer in homeschooling (he was homeschooled himself), saying, "I still say the only education worth anything is self-education." For Frost, this meant convincing the authorities that he and his wife could educate their children at home, which was taboo during the early 1900's.

Vistors to the Frost home can see the parlor where "Elinor and Robert homeschooled their children and spent plesant evenings reading together as a family before the children were tucked in for the night."

Elizabeth Edwards
During John Edwards' 2008 bid for election, his then-wife Elizabeth Edwards choose to pull her children out of public school and bring them along for an up-close view of the campaign trail. Her motivations stemmed from the difficult experience her family had in 2004, when they were separated for long periods of time.

In a 2007 interview with The Huffington Post, Edwards said, "I think it's been an incredible experience for them to have this wide range of ways in which they learn. I don't think impossible to translate some of these things into a public school setting, but it's been a little easier of course, because it's just the two children and the teacher who can walk out the door." (Edwards died in 2010.)

Read the original article at The Parentables

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